Mass Effect: Front Lines
by Cavik96
Summary: An N7 Marine fights across the galaxy. Join John Parker as he leads a team of ME3 multiplayer characters as they face the Reapers and Cerberus. This is a collaboration with Hitokiri Akins and it accompanies his "Chronicle of Ana Shepard".
1. Chapter 1

**So...I know a lot of you wanted the new chapter for Chronicles of the Fifth Blight. Don't worry, I'm not giving up on it, but between a few things about the new chapter having a couple of issues I need to fix and personal real life problems I haven't been able to finish working on it.**

 **Meanwhile, allow me to present another story "Mass Effect: Front Lines".**

 **This story is the result of a collaboration between me and another writer, Hitokiri Akins. It is set in the same "universe" as the one from his "Chronicle of Ana Shepard" and is concurrent with the ME3 events that happen there.**

 **This story will be understandable enough on its own, but I recommend you read "Chronicle of Ana Shepard" anyway.**

 **Credit for this chapter goes to Hitokiri himself, with a few edits from me. Enjoy the read!**

* * *

The Reapers were here. Earth had fallen and the only ones who had any chance to take it back were the elite of the military: the N7 marines.

Lt. Commander John Parker and his squad of elite soldiers dropped off the shuttle and into a Reaper controlled system. His job was to lead his team into an evacuation run, to get the inhabitants off the world of Mindoir, a world that had been attacked by batarian slavers 16 years prior. It also happened to be the homeworld of the famous Commander Shepard.

" _It can't be a coincidence that the Reapers struck here first,_ " Commander Parker thought as he and his squad moved their way through the colony. But he pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he and his team moved their way into the main settlement.

"All right everyone, fan out," Commander Parker said "Volkov, Tamotu, take point. Kaya, Mathieu, cover our rear. Rossi, cloak and scout ahead, but don't take any chances."

The team gave their confirmation, and a few moments later, 1st Lieutenant Eugenia Rossi sent a message over the radio about what the Reapers' strength was: mostly husk shock troops, but they had some marauders and cannibals to round out their capability.

"Acknowledged, Rossi. Stay put until we get there," Commander Parker said, before turning his attention back to his team. "All right guys, you know what we're here for. Get the colonists to the extraction point. Get in, get out. No heroics."

The team knew what they were doing. Volkov and Kaya were to escort the colonists to a defensible point until they radioed for extraction; Volkov's shield allowed him to protect his charges while they got away, while Kaya's potent biotic power was able to cover their escape. Parker, Tamotu and Mathieu would draw the Reaper's fire while Volkov and Kaya got the colonists out, and Rossi sniped at anyone who tried to sneak up on Volkov and Kaya.

Once at the battlefield, Commander Parker saw the chaos immediately: the Reaper troops had pretty much burned the colony to the ground. Crops were destroyed, communication dish crumbled, homes damaged beyond recognition.

And when Commander Parker saw a cannibal dragging a colonist behind it, he knew that they didn't have a lot of time.

"All right, let's raise some hell!"

The team moved with purpose, taking down Reaper troops with both their weapons and special abilities.

2nd Lieutenant Reneé Mathieu used her grenade pylon to help the team resupply as they fought, and used her special grenades to take down the shields of the marauders and home in on the cannibals who were trying to capture the colonists.

1st Lieutenant Mali Kaya used her Annihilation Field to keep the husks off her and Staff Lieutenant Dmitri Volkov while they got the colonists into a safe location and used her Dark Channel and Singularity abilities to keep the Reapers at bay.

2nd Lieutenant Yoshi Tamotu used his Biotic Charge to move across the battlefield, helping those who needed him, and used his biotically charged monomolecular blade to get the Reapers off the innocent civilians.

Lieutenant Rossi continued to snipe at the Reapers while cloaked, and used her electric blade to strike down any Reapers that got too close.

And Lt. Commander Parker controlled the battlefield with his shoulder mounted missile launcher and weapons superiority, as well as his greater tactical knowledge to move his people around to save the greatest number of people.

The battle was long fought, getting the colonists to a defensible prefab, where they could call for extraction.

While there, Commander Parker considered their options: Lt. Mathieu was down to one grenade pylon, so this would be the last time they could resupply themselves, while Kaya and Tamotu had gone through heavy biotic use, and were on their last energy drink. They still had plenty of thermal clips, and Parker's own missile launcher used the old cool down system, and not the power cells or thermal clips that the rest of their weapons used. N7 marines were well versed in all forms of combat, and were willing to use old proven technologies that others had abandoned.

"This is a lot tougher than that batarian slaver camp we took down last month," Lt. Volkov said.

"Got that right," Lt. Kaya said "Though the Reapers aren't that much uglier than the batarians."

This got a chuckle from the group, which helped raise their spirits.

"Still, I feel sorry for the four eyed bastards," Volkov said "Getting hit out of the gate, and all."

Commander Parker nodded his head, thinking again about how bad this war was going to get.

Yes, the Alliance officially denied the Reapers existed up until the point where they invaded, but all N7 marines were being trained for the arrival since Admiral Anderson became Councilor Udina's advisor.

The Admiral, N7 himself, used every bit of influence he had to make sure that any N7 that graduated the program was ready to fight the Reapers, so each and every one of them had an idea of what was coming.

"Shit!" Lt. Rossi shouted from the top of the building "One of those big bastards is coming right for us!"

Commander Parker ordered his squad to bunker down and prepare for the brute.

These things had the power of a krogan with the tactical mind of a turian, so they were powerful enough to crush a tank but smart enough to kill soldiers inside that managed to survive.

"Kaya! Volkov! Tamotu! Biotic explosion! Everyone else, lay down as much fire as you can!" Parker shouted.

The team moved into action with practiced purpose: Kaya set up the unstable biotic field with Dark Channel, and Tamotu hit the brute with a simple biotic Throw to detonate it.

Volkov tossed out a Throw of his own to synchronize with the unstable field and caused a secondary explosion that allowed the rest of the team to gun down the brute with little trouble.

It was that moment when Commander Parker got a message from their shuttle; the LZ was ready for pick up, so it was time to go.

And with the way out relatively clear now that the brute was dead, the team managed to get to the LZ with little trouble.

They were thanked by the mayor of the town just before the last civilian shuttle took off, and then headed onto their own shuttle to bring them back to Admiral Hackett.

"It's going to get worse, isn't it?" Lt. Mathieu said, vocalizing what they were all thinking.

"Yeah, it is," Commander Parker said. "But we're trained for this. We are the best the Alliance has to offer."

"Damn right, sir," Lt. Rossi said, grinning behind her helmet "Doesn't matter who gets in our way. Reapers, Cerberus or geth, we'll do what we've been trained to do."

Commander Parker slumped back in his seat as his team congratulated themselves.

" _We may be the best, but we're not going to win this alone,"_ he thought " _We need the other races, or else the Reapers are going to wipe us all out._ "

* * *

 **So, that's it for now. I'll update here soon after Hitokiri does with his story.**

 **The new chapter for Chronicles of the Fifth Blight should be coming soon, so stay tuned for that.**

 **See you next time folks!**


	2. Chapter 2

**"Whaaaaat?! Another one of these so soon? What's this madness? And where is the DA chapter?!"**

 **I know, I know, people, calm down.**

 **The fact is, I had some of these chapters ready to be published for some time and since Hitokiri Akins just posted another chapter I decided to proceed with the new one here as well.**

 **As I said, the Chronicles of the Fifth Blight will be coming soon, don't worry.**

 **Meanwhile, enjoy the read.**

* * *

"This is unbelievable," Lt. Volkov commented, visibly annoyed at their situation "The Reapers are on top of us and none of the other species thinks joining forces against them is in their best interest?"

"Apparently not," Lt. Kaya replied.

"We're not totally screwed," Lt. Mathieu interrupted "The leaders of the turians, asari and salarians intend to hold a summit to decide their moves against the Reapers. Commander Shepard will also be there."

"Shepard?" Rossi asked "I thought she was in jail."

"Apparently she got out," Mathieu corrected "Admiral Hackett gave her the task to gather as many allies as she can."

Commander Parker, hearing Mathieu's report, did his best to supress a sigh. He still remembered the day Shepard had surrendered herself to the Alliance and how she had strongly stated she had never been Cerberus' stooge and had only followed her directives as a Spectre. And, although her efforts to stop the Collectors were undeniable and commendable, her refusal to give an actual explanation on how she had survived the destruction of the original Normandy and her coming in contact with Cerberus was a show that some of her claims were of questionable credibility. Oh, she claimed that Cerberus essentially kidnapped her, but even that strained credibility for the first human Spectre. But Parker put those thoughts aside, focusing on what was truly important.

"All right, stow the chatter, everyone," he told his team "We have a mission to handle."

His team quieted down, and looked at their leader as he began the briefing. "As you may already know, Cerberus has decided to start opposing the Alliance's war efforts, limiting our movements throughout Citadel Space."

"Why would they do that?" Rossi asked "They are racistic bastards, but not idiots."

"Not our concern, Rossi," Parker stated "There's hope, however. Our mission is to retrieve a defector, who is going to provide us with critical intel on Cerberus activities and projects." As he stated the word 'defector', the Commander activated his omnitool and used it to project the profile immage of their man.

"His name is Antonio Cabrera. Biotic. Ex-Corporal in the Alliance Marine Corp. Court-martialed almost two years ago for insubordination and violent conduct. Nothing has been heard of him until now."

Parker then switched the picture with the schematics he had been provided "It appears he joined Cerberus and volunteered for a project called 'Phoenix'. Its purpose is enhancing human physiology to develop stronger biotics, and they've specialized in manipulating mass effect fields as whips. Long-ranged and deadly."

Parker turned off his omnitool before finishing "The base where the project is being held is also a fighter base that gives Cerberus an advantage in this sector. Cabrera has promised the base's intel and given us instructions to secure it for the Alliance, in exchange for an extraction."

"Are we sure this is not a trap?" 2nd Lieutenant Roberta Kraus, their shuttle pilot, asked.

"Even if it is, the intel is too good to ignore, Lt," Parker replied.

He then turned back to his team and told them: "The plan is the following; Tamotu, Volkov, Kaya and I will land near the main hangar, stir a distraction and disable the base's defenses. Mathieu and Rossi, you two will take advantage of it and get in through a side entrance, rendezvous with Cabrera and get him out. Understood?"

"Understood, sir!" the two women answered.

"Approaching the base, Commander!" Kraus informed Parker.

"Alright everyone, get ready!" Parker ordered his team.

One moment later, the shuttle was at the entrance of the facility, and Parker and his men immediately dropped in and began their assault on the main entrance. They set a demolition charge to cause a distraction, and bunkered down for the incomming Cerberus troops.

With the distraction team on the ground, Lieutenant Kraus flew the shuttle to the to the backside of the base, where Rossi and Mathieu also dropped. They ventured into the base, making their way toward the waypoint that their schematics indicated.

Once there, however, they found three of Cerberus troops dragging away another one of their own. So, to not risk to lose their target, Rossi gestured Mathieu to take cover, while also activating her stealth generator. Moving as quietly as possible, she managed to get close enough to stab in the chest one of the troops. Taking advantage of the other two's surprise, Mathieu came out of cover and used an arc grenade to short out their shields, and then used an Incinerate on another, setting off a fire tech explosion. The third, panicking over the sudden deaths of both his comrades, fell easily to Rossi's pistol.

"Antonio Cabrera?" Rossi asked the survivor after making sure all of the Cerberus troops were dead.

"Yes," the man replied "I was told to expect a 'Commander Parker' for an evac. Which of you is that?"

"Commander Parker is attacking the main entrance, giving us the opening we need to get you out of here," Lt. Rossi answered, offering her hand to Cabrera.

The defector took it, his face drooping "Will the Commander manage to handle the defenses without my help?"

"Don't worry about that," Rossi replied "Now come on, we need to move."

 **On the other side of the facility**

"All defenses down!" Lieutenant Tamotu said.

"Excellent work!" Parker replied. "Let's head back to the LZ now!"

He activated his comm as the team fell back toward the LZ, taking down any Cerberus troops that got in their way "Rossi, we're heading back to the LZ. What's your status?"

"Mission complete, sir," the Lt. answered "Kraus is picking us up right now."

"Copy that. We'll be waiting." Parker barked out, gunning down one of those whip bastards he had mentioned in the briefing.

"Understood, sir!" Rossi answered.

The team made their way back to the LZ, Volkov keeping fire off their tail while Kaya dropped a Singularity at the choke point, which gave Tamotu time to detonate it with a Warp. Parker then lobbed a grenade to help cover their escape before sealing the door behind them. Once at the LZ, however, another problem presented itself.

"Incoming Atlas!" Volkov warned, as the mech dropped from the sky.

The team bunkered down as Parker quickly went through what he'd heard of this type of mech; the combination of a YMIR's armor and firepower and the tactical mind of a human pilot, powered by an element zero core and armed with a rocket launcher and a high-power mass accelerator cannon, both highly destructive weapons against which even Volkov's omni-shield wouldn't last long.

"Scatter!" Parker ordered as he saw the Atlas aiming at them.

No sooner had the order come out of Parker's mouth, the Atlas began launching rockets in Kaya's directions and firing with the cannon at Tamotu. They began to return fire, but they did little to no damage with their weapons.

Parker took the time to assess their options; without Mathieu to resupply them, everyone was at a shortage of ammo and Kaya and Tamotu were close to exhaustion due to the heavy biotic. The Atlas, though, had a disadvantage: without its pilot, it would go non-functional. The problem was the highly resistant glass protecting him.

"Tamotu, can you do one more Biotic Charge?" the Commander shouted at his team mate, as an idea hit him.

"I believe I can, sir!" Tamotu shouted back.

He then turned to the only person in the group with tech training: "Volkov! Use an Overload! We need to disable the shields! I'll stagger it with my grenades, then everyone else open fire with flame rounds!"

"On it!" the team shouted. And although Volkov's technical skills were not as good as Mathieu's, the shields of the Atlas were quickly lowered by the combination of Overload and the fire tech burst. Once they were done, Parker unleashed a salvo of his shoulder-mounted missiles, which damaged the cockpit's glass.

"Tamotu!" Parker shouted. "Slam into the cockpit and rip the pilot out!"

"On it!" Tamotu said, channeling dark energy around him, and rushed forward, shattering the glass, and used his biotics to punch through the pilot's armor, and grabbed him by the shirt. He then leapt back, pulling the pilot with him, and once on the ground, Tamotu finished him off with his shotgun.

With no pilot, the mech was now disabled, but Parker was not willing to let it be used against them again. He ordered his team to toss their remaining grenades at it, damaging it beyond repair.

After that, Parker looked up to see their shuttle coming into their airspace. They were forced to leave quickly, however, as Kraus alerted the team that Cerberus fighters were incoming.

As the shuttle flew away from the facility, Cabrera took the chance to speak: "I...thank you for this extraction. I did not think the Alliance would..."

"The Alliance does not give up on its men," Parker interrupted him "Even those who gave up on it."

Cabrera lowered his head at the remark "I know. I should have known better than to do this. But back then, Cerberus were the only ones who seemed to be acting on the disappearing colonies. It was only after the others within the project began disappearing that..."

"You'll be able to make your case once you're in Citadel space," Parker interrupted him again "For now, be glad to be back on the right side."

"I am, sir," Cabrera reassured.

"If I may, Commander?" Mathieu intervened right after, at which Parker nodded his permission "What was going on in there? Why were you being taken away?"

Cabrera took a moment before replying: "I was caught while attempting to break into the archives. I was looking for the most sensitive intel, the one that was most likely to be erased in case of an attack. Just in case."

"What did you find?" Parker asked.

"Two things," Cabrera answered "First, there is a top-secret facility, somewhere on the planet Sanctum, where all bases are ordered to send any Reaper-releated artifact they come across."

"What does Cerberus want from Reaper artifacts?" Volkov asked.

"That answer is in the base's computers, I'm afraid," Cabrera replied "The second thing: this post was turned into a fighter base only recently, but its original purpose was attempting to salvage Rachni genetic material from the incident that occured here three years ago."

"Rachni?!" everyone asked in surprise.

"Yes," Cabrera confirmed "Though, someone had already beaten Cerberus on time. An unknown party that had taken everything that could be taken."

"This is very grave, Cabrera," Parker commented "You need to tell high command everything about this."

"I will, sir."

* * *

 **This one was written by me and later edited by Hitokiri. If you haven't already, I'd recommend reading his "Chronicle of Ana Shepard" as well.**

 **See you next time**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, here we are with a new chapter.**

 **You may be wondering: "Why has this come after Hitokiri published so many other chapters?"**

 **Well, the answer is this one is set after the latest chapter he has posted and I had been waiting for the right moment to keep continuity between the two stories.**

 **With that said, enjoy the read!**

* * *

"You guys hear what happened on Sur'Kesh?" Lt. Mathieu said as she performed some last minute checks on her omnitool before the upcoming mission "Because apparently, a Cerberus army attacked an STG facility when the salarians were trying to hand off a female krogan who is apparently immune to the genophage."

Commander Parker just shook his head. He knew better than to ask where Lt. Mathieu got her information, because usually it was somewhere she shouldn't.

But the fact that she _could_ get information she shouldn't, even from their side, showed how brilliant a hacker she was and how valuable she was to his team.

"Racist pricks," Lt. Kaya said "Still, what would they want with a female krogan? Unless..."

"They're working for the Reapers?" Lt. Volkov said, cutting Kaya off "Of course, that would mean that the Illusive Man is indoctrinated."

"That's the most likely explanation, since that krogan female is the lynchpin for getting krogan guns into this war," Lt. Mathieu said "Commander Shepard needs her to synthesize a cure for the genophage."

"All right, secure the chatter," Commander Parker said "Let's go over the mission parameters one more time before touching ground."

"Through the intel Cabrera provided, High Command found out about this facility on Sanctum, which is being used by Cerberus to study Reaper technology. Hackett wants us to clear and secure the facility, and to bring back any Reaper tech and anything else that could be valuable to the Alliance," Commander Parker said.

"Isn't studying Reaper tech dangerous though? Doesn't it indoctrinate people who are around it?" Lt. Tamotu asked.

"Shepard's reports state that short term exposure to any Reaper tech doesn't indoctrinate," Commander Parker said "But yes, we'll need to remind Hackett to keep this shit shielded whenever it's not being actively studied."

"Anyway, base schematics show that we're going to be dealing with close quarters the whole time, so stay close and don't charge off."

The team dropped off their shuttle, and began their clearing operation by heading through the entrance to the left. They crept through the facility slowly to ensure no one could ambush them, scanning for traps and explosives along the way.

"Commander! I found something interesting!" Lt. Rossi said.

"Reaper tech?" Cdr. Parker asked as he scanned the doorway in front of them.

"A 'failed' medigel advance that will only work on aquatic species," Lt. Rossi said.

" _Only Cerberus would consider that a failure_ " Cdr. Parker thought.

"Copy it. Even if we can't use it ourselves, plenty of hospitals could."

Once Lt. Rossi finished copying the file, the team continued into the facility, until Lt. Mathieu discovered the terminal they were looking for.

But as expected, Cerberus troops swarmed in like the vermin that they were.

"Bunker down!" Cdr. Parker shouted "Volkov, watch Mathieu's back! Everyone else, take these bastards down!"

The battle was quick, with Lt. Volkov's omnishield keeping fire of Lt. Mathieu's back while the rest of the team unloaded their weapons and abilities on the Cerberus troops, and it wasn't long before Lt. Mathieu stripped the shielding on the Reaper object.

She grabbed it, Cdr. Parker radioed Lt. Kraus, and the team made their way back to the LZ, fighting off the Cerberus troops the whole way.

Once back at the LZ, Lt. Mathieu dropped the object off, and Cdr. Parker told the pilot to "Bug out until we get the next object!"

The team continued back into the facility, though the fighting was much harder than before, now that Cerberus was alerted to their presence.

This barely slowed them down, though, as they now knew the layout of the facility, and it wasn't long before they retrieved the second Reaper object and made their way back to the shuttle.

Once back at the shuttle, the team put the device on the shuttle and Lt. Mathieu grabbed the bomb that they were to plant in the heart of the facility. With the galaxy not yet united, a facility in the Terminus Systems could not yet be properly defended, so they had to destroy it.

The team made their way back into the facility, fighting off any Cerberus remnants they came across.

"All right people, you know the drill," Cdr. Parker said "Get into position while Mathieu sets up."

The team moved into their normal bomb defense maneuvers: Lt. Volkov set himself down with his omnishield to defend Lt. Mathieu from fire, while Lt. Rossi found a good place to snipe at anyone who came into her view. Lt. Kaya laid down a Singularity at the other access point, and Lt. Tamotu and Cdr. Parker bunkered down to defend their Engineer.

Luckily, they had cleared most of the Cerberus troops earlier, so Lt. Mathieu was able to finish her job.

"Armed, locked down and shielded. Let's go," she said as she grabbed her rifle off her back.

The team got back to their shuttle and, making sure they had shielded the Reaper tech as they boarded, got out of the facility with plenty of time before the bomb exploded.

However, as per Cdr. Parker's preference, they remained within range to ensure the facility went up in flames before heading back to their ship.

* * *

 **So, that's it for now. This chapter was written by Hitokiri with a few edits by me.**

 **See you next time!**


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